Anyone notice Guinness tastes different? It seems to me when they stopped using the "widget" in their bottles, the flavor changed. It now has a slightly sour aftertaste.

A year ago or so I was asked to leave an irish pub when I got into a huge argument with the bartender. I told them their Guinness keg was crap after taking one sip of a draw and I told them I wanted my money back. They gave me my money and I was escorted out.

But now I tasted guinness(bottles) last friday for the first time in a year and realized its the same taste. Slightly sour aftertaste. They changed something. I can't drink it anymore.

Yuengling Lager, Black & Tan or Light Lager are good. The Light Lager only has one WeightWatcher Point per 16 oz....(I’ve lost 50 lbs and have 35 more to go). Single Malt Scotch goes real nice with a fine cigar, too.

67
posted on 05/13/2012 3:32:35 PM PDT
by Tucker39
( Psa 68:19Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits; even the God of our salvation.KJV)

I’m starting to dislike catholics(in a way)...sorry but true. Wherever they have strength in numbers things go to shit. The paradox is that my best friends and best girlfriends have usually been catholics. I tend to date catholic girls, and not on purpose. My best buds are usually catholic.

I live in Canada and drink canned Guinness that I buy at liquor stores. When the cans still had those ping pong ball widgets, they were brewed and canned in Toronto using ingredients shipped from Ireland. Now the cans are shipped directly from Ireland and no longer have the plastic ball. They seem to me to actually taste a little bit better. These are the Guinness 4.2% alcohol tall black cans that come in 4-packs and 12-packs.

You've got more life experience than I have. I've never been escorted out of a bar. Of course I've never told them that a commercial name-brand product they served me was "crap".

I like to drink Guinness from time to time but my favorite everyday beer is Pilsner Urquell. However, don't buy it in the six-packs as you will likely have it skunked. Instead, buy in the sealed cases or 12-packs where no light can get into the green bottles. Pilsner Urquell tastes refreshing on a hot summer day but it also is a great beer to have by the fireplace on a cold, winter's night.

I don't drink Sam Adams as much anymore but I'm still a sucker for the seasonal beers. Over the winter, I had plenty of their Coffee Stouts, Chocolate Double Bocks and Black Lagers.

Maybe you were not aware of the problem with guinness kegs. They go bad much easier than any other kegs in a bar. The are not pressurized with CO2. They are pressurized with nitrogen. If they don’t serve several pints per day every single day, the beer in the line from the keg to the tap will go bad and the “infection” will spread to the keg and spoil the entire keg. It is common for a keg to go bad in a bar that doesn not serve enough of it to keep the lines clear of “infection”.

This is why most bars do NOT have guinness kegs and do not offer guinness on tap. You have to watch out for the bars that are marginal...the bars that WANT to have guinness on tap but do not serve enough of it to keep their lines clear.

I am a home brewer and for a long time I preferred guinness bottles for my brew based on their appealing appearance. They were an extra pain because you had to get the plastic widget out of the bottle before you could sterilize it. I fabricated my own widget extraction tool out of a ham slicer knife and invented my own technique for getting the widget out.

NO, they only recently stopped using the widget in the bottles...like the last 2-3 years.

I don’t know where you live, but where I live, there were no guinness bottles without widgets(not counting the shortneck extra stout bottles)...until recently...then they stopped putting widgets in bottles.

I suppose I should buy some cans and taste them to test my whole premise.

Guinness tried to push their Guinness Extra Cold line over the past few years. They didn't realize that "Can Result in Dog Sex" is an anagram formed from that name, thankfully the line appears to be a miss with the public.

Nigeria loves Guinness. I think they drink more of it than in Ireland. Outside of Ireland and England, Nigeria was the first to have a Guinness brewery.

I remember about 5 years ago Guinness was messing with a new way to create the perfect pint. The black stuff was poured straight into the glass then put on a magnetic pad. When a charge was passed through it, the trademark "storm before the calm" arose from the bottom of the glass and formed a perfect head. I don't know why this never caught on as it was like watching a Guinness volcano erupt right before your eyes!

I had a barmaid pour me a pint with a perfect shamrock on the head. No biggie, I thought, so I challenged her for a flower on the next one. A perfect daffodil. Damn, she was good at Guinness art. And so young to be that talented. The third pint, I thought would be an impossible request, I asked for a poodle. In return, perfection, pom-poms on tail and feet, it was a French one! If only she wasn't working in relative obscurity, in a small town pub in East Anglia, she coulda been a contender!

To Guinness' credit - they are always experimenting with ways to perfect it, and their marketing has been absolutely brilliant over time. Of course, having Paddies flung to all four corners of the globe helps its appeal.

I only will drink the cans if they have the little widget in them. Draft is good too. I don’t care for the bottles, even the ones with the widget. Very important is that you pore it slowly and then let it cascade before you move the glass. And the shape of the glass is important too.

I drink nothing but Yuengling now. I am convinced it is the best American lager. I used to love Rolling Rock, but they changed the receipt; now I won’t drink it. And I do remember Schiltz, it was good until they changed the receipt.

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